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Koogle is the name of a new Hebrew-language Internet search engine that allows surfing without getting drowned in sexually explicit and other offensive material. The brainchild of Yossi Altman, Koogle is a pun on the Jewish noodle pudding known as “kugel.” The new search engine maybe a boon to the hareidi religious community, whose rabbis often ban the use of the Internet because of the accessibility to pornography.

(IsraelNN.com) Despite the EU Parliament's vote Wednesday to legalize “shechita,” the Jewish method of humane animal slaughter is still very much in danger. It was reported on Thursday that the European Jewish Community “hailed” the European Parliament’s vote to legalize the traditional Jewish method of slaughter into European law. However, it was later clarified that in fact, the Parliament only has consultative status in this case, and that the European Union’s Council of Agricultural Ministers will have the final say when it convenes next month. SNIP... The anti-shechita campaign has been viewed as anti-Semitic by many Jews in Europe. When...

The European Union Parliament on Wednesday voted to legalize kosher slaughtering, which has been outlawed by six countries -- but a critical vote next month will determine if EU countries can effectively get around the approval by demanding pre-stunning, which violates Jewish dietary laws. The European Jewish Congress and conference of European Jewish Rabbis lobbied heavily for the bill and defeated efforts by animal rights groups to ban kosher slaughtering, which demands swift death to the animal by use of a sharp knife at the throat.

(IsraelNN.com) A new tequila is being introduced to the U.S. market for all those who want to celebrate the Mexican holiday Cinco De Mayo with a high-end kosher-for-Passover drink in hand. Martin Silver, owner of Long Island-based Star Industries, says Mexican-made Agave 99 is being unveiled right in time for both the anniversary of Mexico's defeat of France in 1862, as well as the holiday celebrating the redemption of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt in 1440 BCE – Passover. Though a product launch featuring Yiddish and Spanish renditions of Mexican songs is set for early May, Agave 99...

NEW YORK - A New York businessman is launching a new kosher tequila in time for Cinco de Mayo. Martin Silver says Agave 99 will be on the market in time for the holiday that celebrates Mexico's defeat of French forces on May 5, 1862. Silver, president of Long Island-based Star Industries, says he wants to satisfy the craze for high-end tequila with one that observant Jews can drink.

It was an all-out frankfurter frenzy this week at a popular Jewish restaurant in Brooklyn, as a certain hot dog caused a near-riot. It's not what you would expect: a worker in a NYC eatery caught on tape fending off a group of Jewish patrons with an electric knife. "I was petrified – stuff was going through my mind," a patron who didn't want his name used said. "I want to live. I don't want to get stabbed for a hot dog." The long-time patron says the chaos broke out when he and a rabbi noticed the frankfurters on the...

L'Chaim! Stock Up Now! Photograph courtesy of mhaithaca While bread gets cracker-ified during Passover, chosen bottles of soda get stripped of their high-fructose corn syrup and are sweetened instead with the real deal. No need to hunt for imported Mexican colas or hitch a ride south of the border for the cane sugar cola that tastes so great. That's right: Passover Coke is here! (Or Passover Pepsi, if you're on that side of the Cola War.) Both Coca-Cola and Pepsi make a real-sugar version around this time of year, and you can find it by looking for yellow caps on...

The collapse of the nation's largest kosher meatpacking company has caused a shortage of meat that comply with stringent Jewish food laws. Agriprocessors has struggled since a May immigration raid at its Postville, Iowa, slaughterhouse. Nearly 400 workers were arrested. Customers say it stopped shipping beef about three weeks ago and chicken in the last week. Since there are only a handful of processors nationwide who slaughter animals according to Jewish law and under rabbinical supervision, the shutdown has cut the kosher meat supply to the bone.

For months, CBS News has been following the deepening troubles of tiny Postville, Iowa, population 2,200. Now the shutdown of the town's main employer following a federal immigration raid has Postville at the point of desperation... Postville, Iowa was just decorated with holiday cheer. But looks can be deceiving. "In the last few weeks - it's really gone downhill dramatically," says Mayor Bob Penrod. With empty streets - and shuttered shops - this small town is facing economic calamity. Penrod is taking steps this weekend to declare a state of emergency here - but not a natural disaster - rather...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — A former executive of a kosher slaughterhouse that was the site of one of the nation's largest immigration raids was arrested Friday on a bank fraud charge and ordered jailed until at least next week,In the months following the raid, the company has faced state and federal allegations that it violated child labor laws, wage regulations and safety rules. The arrest Friday was related to the depositing of checks from customers and the alleged diversion of money.

(IsraelNN.com) The bankruptcy of the kosher meatpacking plant Agriprocessors, the largest American kosher meat operation, has forced many Jews to go vegetarian amid kosher-food shortages and soaring prices. The Postville, Iowa plant had supplied more than half of the kosher meat for millions of Jews as well as non-Jews who prefer buying meat processed according to Jewish law. Federal investigators raided the plant in May and charged officials with violating immigration laws and hiring 389 illegal workers. Agriprocessors filed for bankruptcy this week after the resulting labor shortage left it unable to meet customer demand and forced a shutdown of...

ANIMAL rights campaigners will call on MSPs this week to ban the Islamic and Jewish method of slaughtering animals, claiming there can be no exemptions purely on the grounds of religious belief. A petition will be heard, backed by the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA), arguing that animals can only be killed in Scotland if pre-stunned first. Jews and Muslims believe that animals should be slaughtered using methods known as the 'schechita' and 'dhabiha' respectively. A sharp knife is used to cut its throat. The meat must then be 'purified' by the blood being drained...

Here's where I guess we say, "BLACK HAWK DOWN ON POSTVILLE." Yup, after $10,000,000 spent on the absurd raid on a kosher meat plant in May, only about 300 illegal aliens supposely deported and given zero jailtime (even though many were multiple deportees), here's what's happening at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa: Buh-bye, Hispanic illegal aliens. Hello, "semi-legal" Muslim Somalian extremists...

POSTVILLE, Iowa — When federal immigration agents raided the kosher meatpacking plant here in May and rounded up 389 illegal immigrants, they found more than 20 under-age workers, some as young as 13. Now those young immigrants have begun to tell investigators about their jobs. Some said they worked shifts of 12 hours or more, wielding razor-edged knives and saws to slice freshly killed beef. Some worked through the night, sometimes six nights a week. One, a Guatemalan named Elmer L. who said he was 16 when he started working on the plant’s killing floors, said he worked 17-hour shifts,...

Scores of heavily armed federal agents last month stormed into Agriprocessors, which produces up to 70 percent of all kosher meat in America. The feds seized almost 400 of the plant's 900 workers in the largest single roundup of illegal immigrants to date, charging about 300 of them with identity theft and using stolen Social Security cards. Some of those workers have since sued the company, alleging abuse, fraud and sexual coercion. Postville, which once sold T-shirts boasting of the peaceful coexistence of its many cultures, has been left "absolutely shattered," said the Rev. Paul Ouderkirk of the town's St....

NEW YORK - Kosher meat, always more expensive than regular beef and poultry, may grow even pricier this summer, following the arrests of nearly half the work force in an immigration raid at the nation's largest kosher meat processor. If the company can maintain production at the plant, its prices may still rise as it hires documented workers after the largest immigration raid in history, said Joe Regenstein, a food sciences professor at Cornell University.

A chance encounter in Israel between vets and a giraffe has led to a rabbinical ruling that the African animal is kosher. According to a report in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, vets were asked to treat an adult, female giraffe at Israel's largest zoo, the Safari Park in Ramat Gan. Giraffe meat and milk has been ruled acceptable for observant Jews The team, led by Professor Zohar Amar, took a routine sample of milk and found that it clotted in the way required by Jewish law for kosher certification. They submitted more milk for verification by the rabbinical authorities and...

Federal authorities charged that a methamphetamine laboratory was operating at the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse and that employees carried weapons to work. The charges were among the most explosive details to emerge following the massive raid Monday at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa. In a 60-page application for a search warrant, federal agents revealed details of their six-month probe of Agriprocessors. The investigation involved 12 federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the departments of labor and agriculture. According to the application, a former plant supervisor told investigators that some 80 percent of the workforce...

A recent undercover investigation into slaughterhouse practices in South America has revealed the heinous use of the animal restraint method known as "shackling and hoisting" during the kosher slaughter process. We in Israel have no reason to feel immune from responsibility for these barbaric practices as South America is the largest source of kosher beef imports into Israel. Additionally, South America is the largest offshore supplier of kosher meat to the United States. Both the Israeli rabbinate and the Orthodox Union (OU) in the US explicitly endorse these methods by providing their kosher authorizations to the resulting meat. Shackling and...

Kosher certification is the new darling of health-conscious consumers who misguidedly believe that biblically blessed health standards can reign in the excesses of commercial food production. Even Chinese exporters are betting that kosher certification can convince foreign consumers that their wares are safe. To companies, certification is just a marketing tool: it lends the aura of safety without offering any actual food safety benefits. Many Chinese companies were unfamiliar with the concept: One furniture maker asked for kosher certification, drawing a polite rebuff. Another facility asked to get certified as kosher even though it was smoking eel on site, a...